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Office of Inspector General
C/7y of Chicago
Report of the Office of Inspector General:
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Department of Finance Emergency Medical Ser vices Billing Foll o w- Up Inquir y
May 2017
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866-1G- UPLINE (866-448-4754) www.c/iicagoinspeclorgencrdl.org
Joseph M. Ferguson Inspector General
OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL
City of Chicago
740 N. Sedgwick Street, Suite 200 Chicago. Illinois 60654 Telephone: (773) 478-7799 Fax: (773)478-3949
May 8, 2017
To the Mayor, Members of the City Council, City Clerk, City Treasurer, and residents of the City
of Chicago:
The City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) has completed a follow-up to its July 2016 audit of the Department of Finance's (DOF) billing for emergency medical services provided by the Chicago Fire Department (CFD). Based on DOF's responses, OIG concludes that the Department has partially implemented corrective actions related to the audit findings.
The purpose of the July 2016 audit was to determine if DOF billed accurately and completely for emergency medical services through its contract with a billing vendor. Our audit found that,
DOF billed accurately for emergency ambulance transports but opportunities existed to strengthen its compliance practices;
DOF's billing for emergency ambulance transports was not complete, resulting in an estimated $160,799 of missed fee revenue in 2014;
DOF could increase fee revenue by an estimated $696,594 annually if it expanded the range of City-provided emergency medical services subject to fees; and
DOF could reduce costs by eliminating incentive fees from future contracts or, if the fees are maintained, clarifying how they are awarded.
Based upon the results of our audit, we recommended that DOF,
take measures to ensure that it bills completely for all billable transports, and consider expanding the range of services subject to a fee;
consider eliminating the i...
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